PAME
Third National Conference 2016 attracts delegates from India, Iran and
Bhutan as well

Prof. Nizamuddin calls for research based on
our needs and policies based on evidence

Public health issues remain neglected and we need more public

health institutions in Pakistan manned by social scientists

Capacity building of Editorial teams, researchers will help

improve standard of Pakistani Biomedical Journals and

they will earn more citations

From our special correspondent

LAHORE: Punjab Higher Education Commission Chairman Prof. Nizamuddin has
called for research based on our needs and making policies based on
evidence. Best results in healthcare can be achieved if we bring together
researchers and policy makers to promote research culture. He was
inaugurating the two day Third National Conference of Pakistan Association
of Medical Editors (PAME) organized in collaboration with Eastern
Mediterranean Association of Medical Editors (EMAME) and Health Research
Advisory Board at University of Health Sciences Lahore on April 1st2016.

Prof. M. Nizamuddin
Chairman
Punjab Higher Education Commission

The two day conference was largely attended by editors and editorial teams
of biomedical journals published from Pakistan, authors, researches from
all over the country. The conference also attracted a few foreign
delegates and those who graced the occasion with their presence included
Prof. M.B. Rokni from Tehran University of Medical Sciences Iran who is
also Editor of Iranian Journal of Public Health and Iranian Journal of
Parasitology, Prof. Peush Sahni from All India Institute of Medical
Sciences, New Delhi who is also former President of World Association of
Medical Editors (WAME), current President of Indian Association of Medical
Journal Editors and Editor of National Medical Journal of India published
by AIIMS. He was accompanied by his wifeDr. Ameeta Sahni Consultant
Anaesthetist and Dr. Tikaram Adhikari Editor of Bhutan Health Journal from
Bhutan.

Continuing Prof. Nizamuddin said that in Pakistan public health remains
neglected. We have just two three Institute of Public Health though we
need many more such institutions where social scientists should be
working. He did not support the concept of Publish and Perish and opined
that it is the quality of research which matters most and not the
quantity. Research should help solve healthcare issues faced in our
country. At present almost every medical college and institution has its
own medical journal but their quality leaves much to be desired. There are
only four medical journals from Pakistan which are included in the Journal
Citation Report for Impact Factor. He emphasized the importance of
organizing regular workshops, training courses for capacity building of
editors, editorial teams, researchers which will also help improve the
quality and standard of our medical journals and they will get more
citations. He laid emphasis on medical practice based on core knowledge.

Pakistan with a huge population, Prof. Nizamuddin further stated, has lot
of useful data. Doctors should be trained to document this data. It is
moral obligation of doctors to document all the data and have all the
relevant details of the patients they treat and examine. They should know
their patients fully well but unfortunately a large number of healthcare
professionals do not maintain any record of their patients which is highly
unethical. He asked the University of Health Sciences to undertake some
research projects and publish a research journal for which the Punjab
Higher Education Commission will provide necessary funding.

Prof. Maj. Gen. M.Aslam VC UHS and Chairman of the organizing
committee of PAME Third National
Conference is presenting flower Bouquet to Prof. Tahir Saeed Haroon (
Chief Guest) while on right
Prof. Nasar Khokhar President PAME is presenting flower bouquet to Prof.
Ijaz Ahsan
Guest of Honour at thePAME
Third National Conference dinner on April 1, 2016.

If we have proper data, it will help the doctors to make presentations and
also write scientific papers. UHS should also initiate to organize an
annual conference on Medical Research and publish its proceedings.
Successful surgical cases should be documented and the surgical
procedures, techniques should be told to others to train them. We need to
promote research and encourage our healthcare professionals to document
data and write research articles. We are in the habit of often spending
money on wrong places. We need to spend more money in Health and
Education. Currently lot of data which is available is lying in
bookshelves in binders. Preventive medicine, Prof. Nizamuddin opined needs
little more attention. Private health sector should also take care of
medical care and concentrate on community medicine and community health
care. Institutes of Public Health need social scientists, epidemiologist
and not the medical doctors who cannot understand the public health issues
better, he remarked.

On left Prof. Tahir Saeed Haroon presenting mementoe to Prof. M.B.
Rokni from Iran while on left
Prof. Ijaz Ahsan is presenting mementoe to Dr. Tikaram Adhikari from
Bhutan during the PAME
Conference Dinnerorganized at
UHS Campus on April1, 2016.

President PAMEDr.
Fatema Jawadin her
speech said that the aims of PAME include improving editorial standards
and promoting professionalism in medical editing through education,
self-criticism and self-guidance. Awareness about clinical research, she
said, was now growing and it is being carried out in medical institutions.
Number of scientific publications has also increased during the past
couple of years but there is an urgent need to improve their standards.
Over seventy biomedical journals are currently published and recognized by
various regulatory bodies but only four of them were recognized
internationally. PM&DC and HEC can play a vital role in improving the
standard of biomedical journals in Pakistan, she added.

Prof. Nasir Khokhar and Dr. Jamshed Akhtar President and
President-elect respectively presenting
certificates of participation to Prof. M. B. Rokni from Iran and Dr.
Tikaram Adhikari from Bhutan
during thePAME Third National
conference.

EarlierProf.Major Gen.
Mohammad AslamVice
Chancellor of University of Health Sciences who was also Chairman of the
Organizing Committee of the PAME Third National Conference 2016 in his
welcome address said that medical journals could contribute to knowledge
by publishing quality research and ensuring that peer review process was
in place. It must also be ensured that the journals are published
regularly and cover evidence based medicine focusing on health issues
faced by the country and the community at large.

Mr. Shaukat Ali JawaidGeneral
Secretary of EMAME pointed out that the conference was aimed at promoting
collaboration and exchange among editors, authors, researchers and
publishers of medical journals and improving the quality of research.Dr.
Jamshed AkhtarGeneral
Secretary of PAME thanked all those who had helped in successful
organization of the conference, facilitators of various workshops, invited
guest speakers and the presenters during the conference. UHS had approved
three CME Hours for each Workshop and Twelve CME Credits for the two day
conference.

The theme of the conference was “Professionalism and Medical Journal
Editors”. There were two pre-conference workshops on Medical Writing and
Publication Ethics while three workshops on Editorship, Use of Information
Technology in Medical Journalism and Peer Review were organized on April 2nd,
the second day of the conference. Late Dr. Sarwar Zuberi Memorial Session
was devoted to the role of Regulatory bodies like PM&DC and HEC in
promoting medical journalism and quality of the biomedical journals. Mr.
Shaukat Ali Jawaid delivered Dr. Maqbool H. Jafary Memorial Thematic
Lecture on “Professionalism and Medical Editors”. This session was jointly
chaired by Prof. Mohammad Aslam Vice Chancellor of UHS and Prof. M.Akbar
Chaudhry Principal of Azra Naheed Medical College. Both of them also paid
rich tributes to late Dr. Maqbool H.Jafary and recalled his services to
promote the art of medical writing and scientific publishing. Mr. Shaukat
Ali Jawaid in his presentation in the citation highlighted the academic
accomplishments and achievements of late Dr. Maqbool H.Jafary who was a
mentor for him and so many others in different fields.

Participants
of Workshop on Editorship organized during the PAME Third National
Conference onApril 2, 2016 photographed with VC UHS, guests from
overseas besides the facilitator.

The conference started with an open session on What PAME, EMAME can do for
the medical Journal Editors. There was a special session on the role of
regulatory bodies like Pakistan Medical and Dental Council and Higher
Education Commission but unfortunately none of the representatives from
both these bodies were present to listen to the problems and grievances of
the editors and how to solve them. Scientific programme also included
panel discussion on Practical issues in Medical Journal Editing and an
open session devoted to Problems faced by National Medical Journals
wherein Editors of various journals published by medical institutions,
specialty organizations highlighted the problems which they face and thus
shared their experience with other colleagues. Prof. Saba Sohail moderated
tis session. The conference concluded with a Free paper Session.

Conference Dinner

Prof. Ijaz Ahsanformer
Principal of King Edward Medical College who is also former President of
College of Physicians & Surgeons Pakistan was the Guest of Honour at the
conference dinner whileProf.
Tahir Saeed Haroonan
eminent dermatologist, who retired as Prof. & Head of the Dept. of
Dermatology from KEMC graced the occasion with his presence as Chief
Guest. Introducing both these distinguished medical personalities Mr.
Shaukat Ali Jawaid Chief Coordinator of the PAME Third National Conference
said that Prof. Ijaz Ahsan was one of the speakers at the first seminar on
Medical Writing which we had organized in 1992 at King Edward Medical
College/Mayo Hospital Lahore where he spoke on how to write a Case Report.
His latest Text Book of Surgery, he said, has won international acclaim
and is extremely informative and useful for the medical students since it
has been written in a very simple easy to understand English language.

Prof. Tahir Saeed Haroon came to Pakistan in 1976 from UK where he was
serving as a Consultant. It was not easy to be appointed as a consultant
in UK for an Asian in those days. In Pakistan, he founded the Pakistan
Association of Dermatologists, was first affiliated with JPMC at Karachi
and established the Dep.t of Dermatology before joining King Edward
Medical College/Mayo Hospital where he established a state of the art
department of dermatology which now has two units. He managed to build a
team and was the moving spirit behind the start of first MCPS and then
FCPS in dermatology. He has trained one MD, forty FCPS and twenty five
MCPS in dermatology. It was he who managed to get recognition and respect
for this specialty and skin specialists. It won’t be an exaggeration to
mention him as the father figure of dermatology in Pakistan. In addition
he has authored eight medical books and special issues of the medical
journals, has over hundred scientific papers to his credit besides has
also published fifteen books of poetry in Urdu of which twelve are
compilation of his Doha’s for which he has earned respect from the
literary circles in Pakistan as well. He was former President of Pakistan
Medical Journalists Association which was renamed as PAME in 2010 and it
was during his Presidency that we were able to hold the first ever
national conference on Medical Editing at Army Medical College Rawalpindi.

Some of the facilitators of pre-conference workshops organized during the
PAME Third National
Conference photographed with Prof. M. Aslam VC UHS who was also chairman
of the organizing committee of the conference.

As such he has also contributed a lot to promote the art of medical
writing and scientific publishing in Pakistan. We in PAME always remember
our friends and well-wishers hence this was the reason why we decided to
Honour these both distinguished physicians at our dinner. The dinner
reception was also attended by a large number of distinguished medical
personalities, Principals of medical colleges, Deans of postgraduate
medical institutes including Prof. Mahmood Ali Malik, Prof. Zahid Bashir,
Prof. Eice Mohammad, Prof. Riaz Ahsan Siddiqui and former Director of
NICVD Prof. Lt-Gen. M. Afzal Najeeb, Prof. M. Akbar Chaudhry, Prof. Talat
Naheed, Syed Jamshed Ahmad Chief Operating Officer of PharmEvo which has
established Health Research Advisory Board which was one of the
collaborating organizations in this conference, Dr. Asad Abass Director
Marketing and Sales from OBS Pakistan and numerous faculty members from
medical institutions from Lahore. A large number of students trained by
Prof. Tahir Saeed Haroon now working at various medical institutions as
faculty members were also invited to the dinner reception. Mr. Shaukat Ali
Jawaid specially thanked PharmEvo for their unlimited support for academic
activities organized by PAME, valuable help and assistance provided by OBS
Pakistan and Atco Laboratories which has helped us a lot to organize this
conference successfully. He also thanked the foreign guest speakers from
India, Iran and Bhutan for attending the conference.

Earlier Mr. Shaukat Ali Jawaid also traced the history of PAME how it was
established. He also recalled its achievements and accomplishments so far.
We work as a team and hold elections regularly. With the help of Health
RAB PAME, he said, has been regularly holing workshops on Medical Writing,
Peer Review, Publication Ethics and training course of medical journal
editors all over the country in various institutions. He specially thanked
Prof. Maj.Gen. Mohammad Aslam Vice Chancellor of UHS, Pro VC Prof. Junaid
Sarfraz Khan and the entire team of UHS for providing this excellent venue
for the conference and excellent logistics, audiovisual facilities for the
conference. The entire staff of UHS starting from the security staff to
the Vice Chancellor has extended us their cooperation for which PAME and
its Executive was extremely grateful.

Some of the delegates to thePAME Third National Conference held at UHS
Lahore photographed along
with Prof. M. Aslam VC UHS, invited guest speakers from Iran and Bhutan
besidesguests and PAME
Executive Committee Members soon after the inauguration on April 1, 2016.

Speaking at the occasion Prof. Ijaz Ahsan described how difficult it was
to write scientific papers when he was a young faculty member. Finding
references was an uphill task but now things have become very easy. Prof.
Tahir Saeed Haroon thanked PAME for honouring him and also highlighted the
contributions made by numerous distinguished medical editors including Mr.
Shaukat Ali Jawaid, Dr. Fatema Jawad, Prof. Major Gen. M.Aslam, Dr.Akhtar
Sherin, late Dr. Maqbool H. Jafary and late Dr. Sarwar Zuberi to promote
the art of medical writing and scientific publishing which has helped to
improve the standard of biomedical journals published from Pakistan. Mrs.
Dr. Maqbool H. Jafary and Javed Jafary brother of late Dr. Maqbool H.
Jafary were also specially invited to the dinner reception.

A meeting of theSouth
Asian Association of Medial Editors (SAAME)was
also held on the last day of the conference which was attended by Prof.
Peush Sahni from India, Dr. Tikaram from Bhutan and office bearers of PAME
Dr. Fatema Jawad, Dr. Akhtar Sherin, Dr. Jamshed Akhtar, Dr. Masood Jawaid
and Mr. Shaukat Ali Jawaid Central Coordinator of SAAME and some other
editors. It was decided to have increased collaboration in academics and
benefit from the knowledge and experience of editor colleagues from all
the SAARC countries through an exchange programme inviting them to the
national conferences organized by the Medical Journal Editors of various
countries as and when they are organized. We can also use SKIPE and Video
Conferencing facility to collaborate in academics, teaching and training
of our colleagues.